EVENTS

Facebook, Oh Facebook, Part V.

Corey Multer (LinkedIn)

Content Warning: contains social media posts that some may find offensive.

Yet another person who just could not manage to reign in their bigotry and hatred. This time it’s one Corey Multer, a managing director for New York Life Insurance Co. Well, make that former managing director. It looks like New York Life Insurance makes a concerted effort to be a diverse company, but any person of colour working with or near Mr. Multer couldn’t have had an easy time of it, given his attitude and views.

Shanelle Matthews, director of communications with the Black Lives Matter organization, was verbally attacked on Facebook by Corey Multer, a managing director of New York Life Insurance Co.

Multer wrote:

You f–king racist pig whore. The world would be a much better place if you jumped in front of a moving train. Die!

Ms. Matthews had quite the response, and it was most excellent. For those of you who aren’t on facebook, her complete response is under the fold.

After a brief back and forth with New York Life Insurance, this was tweeted:

@TheShanelleM as a result of his comment this individual is no longer employed by us

Good for Ms. Matthews for fighting the good fight, and refusing to back down. And good on New York Life Insurance Co too, for putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak.

Meet Corey Multer. He is the Managing Director at New York Life Insurance Company, the largest mutual life-insurance company in the United States where he’s worked for at least 23 years. On Saturday, he sent me this message, I assume because I recently made some explicit comments regarding my views on Zionism with which he observably disagrees. Though giving him the grace he refused me, it could have nothing to do with that. Perhaps I am a “pig whore” by virtue; who knows.

To restate, at the risk of more death wishes, I support the Palestinian resistance to Israel’s militarized occupation and apartheid and the Boycott Divest Sanction movement. I do not support unprovoked violence against any person. This, I understand, is a point of contention for many people, similar to that of the Black Lives Matter movement of which I am a proud member. The political struggle to which we must commit to realize the success of these movements and the real freedom of Black and Palestinian people cannot be underestimated — a struggle Mr. Multer rejected in favor of this venomous approach.

Given the political struggle around the occupation, and the death, destruction, displacement and many years of loss and grieving its caused, I’m engaging in challenging conversations with people who disagree with me. It’s hard and necessary work. To be clear, however, the hate mail and vitriol I’ve received exceeds these conversations by a landslide.

The rhetoric notwithstanding, I am unhinged by Mr. Multer’s arrogance.

Before messaging me, he didn’t create an alias or try in any visible way to conceal his identity or make private the details of his place of employment. Which, by the way, lauds their efforts on diversity and inclusion and ranks 61st on the 2016 Fortune 500 list with $550 billion in total assets. With a few quick strokes of the keyboard, you can easily find the names of his family members – even his marriage announcement in the New York Times from 1993.

I’m guilty of sometimes dismissing people with whom I don’t have mutual respect, trust or political alignment. I’ve blocked people on Twitter, used an explicative or two in response to hate mail, but never have I ever taken a Trump-esque approach and wished death on someone because I disagreed with them. Not that I would, but as a Black woman, to do and say what I want to whoever I want with little or no consequence is a privilege I am not afforded and one that could very well result in my death. Sandra Bland’s family can attest.

What Mr. Multer’s vicious remarks actually say is that my values and beliefs are not only wrong and unvalued but that I deserve to die because of them. The kind of genocidal philosophy that has catalyzed egregious human right’s violations across the world – some of which, I suspect, Mr. Multer staunchly decries. And this kind of white supremacists resentment and cruelty is the very reason we proclaim over and over again that BLACK LIVES MATTER.

To top off the contempt, he infers that my unwillingness to concede surfaces my sexual proclivity. My refusal to submit makes him so insecure, his masculinity so fragile that just like that, I become the whore he was warned about, the whore patriarchy has empowered to shut down at all costs and with impunity.

We all have a moral and ethical responsibility to hold accountable those who use rhetoric to incite unprovoked violence, to affirm that a grievance of disagreement does not warrant a death wish and that people’s sexual proclivities don’t make them disposable. In a true democracy, there must be political struggle with no room for patriarchy, white supremacy, and sexism.

Through his actions and malice Mr. Multer demonstrated that he does not value Black life — ironic given he’s committed so many years to making sure people have what they need to thrive — and making money, I presume. I don’t anticipate he considered his vitriol would emerge so publicly, after all, who gives a fuck about Black “pig whores?” But in the words of Dan Rather, “once the words are out there they cannot be taken back.”

Comments

And since Facebook has a bad habit of suspending black users for speaking out against racism, maybe this time it will suspend someone actually guilty of racism and verbal violence against women.

I don’t do Facebook or Twitter, but I hope this happens. It is way past time that social media companies take some responsibility for the vitriol spouted by racists, misogynists, and dumbfucks in general. “Free Speech” does not mean that assholes have any kind of right to use (and abuse) anybody else’s platform.

And dammit, it is 2016! What the fuck is wrong with people like Multer? I guess they long for the time when white people (white men actually) had unfettered privilege over everyone else. Those times are gone, so he had best get over it and try living in the modern world.

I went to post applause for Ms. Matthews but her facebook post is closed to comments (whether by her choice or facebook’s, I don’t know).

New York Life Insurance Company is neither “censoring” him nor “denying his free speech”. They are protecting their own interests which he is damaging. The company’s written policy states clearly (page 48-9) that his actions justify termination. He’s got no leg to stand on to file suit.

Types of Misconduct

Misconduct is an act that does not conform to New York Life’s standards or applicable laws. Some examples of misconduct include:

Written or verbal statements that are contrary to New York Life’s interests. These types of statements may call into question your credibility, integrity, judgment, or commitment to New York Life’s policies or mission. These statements include those made through:

The Facebook post could just as easily been made by a white woman. Don’t minimize their racism.

Sure, it could have, but it wasn’t. You’re much more likely, in uStates, to find a high level position of managing director to be held by white men. White male privilege oozes everywhere here, and I don’t think Johnson catman is minimizing a damn thing.